


The Training of Stephanie Brown

by StarPins



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Robin: Son of Batman (Comics), Superman - All Media Types
Genre: Damian Wayne is Nightwing, Gen, Reverse Robins AU, Stephanie Brown is Batgirl
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:48:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28304073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarPins/pseuds/StarPins
Summary: Reverse Robins AU.Steph is back in Gotham and she won't quit vigilantism.Damian thinks she's a danger to herself and others, so he trains her.
Relationships: Jonathan Samuel Kent & Damian Wayne, Stephanie Brown & Damian Wayne, Stephanie Brown & Jonathan Samuel Kent
Comments: 13
Kudos: 69





	1. Steph meets Jon and Alfred the Cat

**Author's Note:**

> In reverse robins Steph is the first Batgirl. And I was thinking, without Babs who is going to train her and finally accept her? Then it clicked. Damian's older and he has a good relationship with her.

"Damian I'm home!" Jonathan Kent announced upon entering the house "They didn't have the ice cream that you like but..."

The half kryptonian couldn't help but drop his grocery bags after entering the kitchen.

There was a beaming blonde teenage girl happily eating waffles sitting next to his grumpy partner at the kitchen table.

Weird. Damian was his friend and he loved him but normal people usually weren't this happy when in proximity to him.

"Hi, I'm Steph!"

She was cheerful, of average height and was using a pale green, short sleeved shirt that let him see that on her bare arms she had a lot of scars, not as many as Damian had, but still way more than the average person.

"Rao, I knew it was only a matter of time before you started bringing home orphans instead of just stray animals"

His partner-against-crime shot him a sharp look that informed him that he was not amused.

"Not an orphan," Steph informed him after eating the last bit of her waffles. "My dad is just, unfortunately, only dead to me and Mom is still very much alive, she even cleaned up her act in the last year!"

Not an orphan and not in urgent need of getting out of a dangerous household then. 

"Is he your boyfriend?" She asked Damian.

"Partner," he answered.

"Sorry, didn't mean to assume," the teen girl apologized, looking back at him again. "What are your pronouns?"

Damian looked like the wanted to facepalm very hard. 

"My partner, FLAMEBIRD"

So she knew about the whole vigilante thing, then.

“Really?!” A second later she was next to him. “You don’t look very super.”

“I get that a lot" Jon responded. “What brings you to our humble abode?”

“Jonathan” Damian interrupted them “This is Stephanie Brown, formerly known as Spoiler.” 

Oh. 

“Didn’t you… die?” He asked knowing fully well that death wasn’t final, where heroes and villains were concerned. After all, when he was thirteen, he returned from space and found out that five years had passed in his absence and that his best friend was very much alive.

“Technically, yes. I definitely flatlined a few times in that operation table,” she explained. “But for the most part Leslie faked my death and we spent the last year doing missionary work in Africa.”

He’d heard of her through Damian, not much though, his partner hadn’t bothered to stay in touch with Batman after he left. He occasionally spoke with Alfred, nonetheless. Also, he kept tabs on Gotham.

One day he had asked if anything interesting was happening in Gotham, as he always did when he found Damian stalking his father and his (not so new now) sidekick. Frowning he had told him that Drake wasn’t at his father’s side anymore and that there weren’t any Batkid sightings either. Instead of him there was a girl calling herself Batgirl who he suspected to be Spoiler a.k.a. Stephanie Brown. Later, after talking with Alfred, he had confirmed that suspicion. Some time passed, Batkid was back and Batgirl was dead.

That didn’t explain why she was here, wouldn’t Batman want her back? He could have two sidekicks, he said so years ago, when he made Tim Drake Batkid and wanted Damian to go back to Gotham. She had a okay mom. Were they just having a nice dead batkid to dead batkid conversation? Damian didn’t want anything to do with Batman ever since he quit being Blood Bat, that wouldn’t change to have a heart to heart with another undead batkid.

Thankfully Damian knew him well and sensed his confusion.

“I will train her from now on,” he explained. “Batman does not want her and she won’t quit, she could be a danger to herself and others.”

Batman didn’t want her? They didn’t know that. So that’s why she was so happy.

“Admit it, I’m awesome and full of potential,” she said “Stop acting like you don’t like me, we bonded over dying, having an evil parent and talking shit about Tim."

“Wasn’t he your boyfriend?” Jon asked, confused.

“We broke up,” she answered “Also, he shouldn’t have told me to quit.”

She was stubborn, he was starting to see why Damian was going to train her.

“You live in Gotham, right?” Steph nodded “How are you going to train her? You’ll still fight crime here, right? Not to mention your work.”

“He has a point.”

“Jonathan will fly you to Blüdhaven.” Damian told her.

“I will?”

“Yes.” 

“Please?” Steph begged.

“Okay.”

“Yay!” She cheered.

Damian suddenly got up.

“Where are you going?” the teen girl asked.

“Bed,” he answered. “I advise you to do the same.”

And with that, he went to his room. 

Jon opened his grocery bags and started putting them away.

“I’ll help!” Steph announced, putting some stuff in the fridge. 

“Thanks,” he said. “I’ll fly you to Gotham as soon as we put away the food.”

“That’s not necessary, Nightwing told me that I’ll stay here for the night,” she said, holding a packet of bacon with one hand and with the other she was pointing at a small bag resting next to a chair. “He didn’t say where though, the couch or do you have an extra room?”

“Yeah, you can stay in Maya’s room.”  
“Who’s room?”

“Maya's, she’s a friend,” he explained. “Technically it’s the guest room, but Maya is the one that stays here the most.”

“Is she a hero too?”

“Yeah, Nobody, you might remember her from the Teen Titans.”

“Yeah, I remember her…” Steph trailed off, hesitating. “Hey Jonathan?”

“Just Jon, please,” he told her. “Only Damian calls me Jonathan.”

“Well then, Jon. Um…” 

“Go on.”

“How many mistakes until he fires me?” She asks quickly.

“What?” He asks, despite hearing her perfectly.

“I said…”

“I heard you, honestly?” She nodded fervently. “You could murder someone in cold blood and he wouldn’t fire you, not really.”

“What.”

“Damian has made, many, many mistakes. He couldn’t fire you, not really, without being a huge hypocrite,” he explained. “Why would you ask that? How many it took Batman?”  
“One.”

“What,” he said. “What did you do?”

“Saved him from a villain,” she said, after seeing his confused face she elaborated, “I disobeyed orders.”

“That’s hardly a valid reason"

“To be honest I think he only wanted to spite Tim,” she declared. “I wasn’t him so he fired me.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, Steph.”

“It’s not only that, though. I really messed up after he fired me.” 

“And then you died?”

“And then I died.” 

“It wasn’t fair,” Jon said, sometimes he really hated Batman, he tried his best but he made some pretty big mistakes with Damian.

“Yeah…” she trailed off. “It’s just… He's so much like his dad, actually, I think he’s even grumpier.”

“Don’t worry, he won’t fire you,” he reassured her. “Even if you killed someone, he would get angry, yes, but he would give you a heartfelt talk about how murder is not the solution and another opportunity. Please don’t kill anyone, though.”

“Really?” she asked. “Don’t worry, murder wasn’t on my plans.”

“That’s a relief,” Jon said. “And yes, really. He might knock the lights out of you, though.”  
“Did that happen for real?” She sounded amused.

“Yeah, you’ll meet Suren soon if you spend a lot of time here.”

“Awesome,” she stated, and after a pause she added: “What mistakes did Nightwing make?”

Ah. She didn’t know. 

“You’ll have to ask him.”

“Oh. Okay.”

After that they fell into comfortable silence and ended putting away all the groceries.

A cat entered the kitchen and meowed.

“Oh, hey Alfred.” Jon greeted it. 

“Alfred?” Steph grinned. “As in…?”

“As in the family’s butler? Yes.” Smiling he picked up the cat and started to pet him.

Steph started laughing.

“I have to go patrol the city,” he said. “Feel free to eat whatever from the fridge and the guest room is the second to the left.

“Goodnight, then.” 

“Goodnight.”

One second later, he was scanning the streets of Blüdhaven.

…

Steph was still looking at the spot where Jon had left, she sighed and tried to pet Alfred, unsuccessfully.

“You’ll warm up to me.”

Taking her bag, she headed off to the guest room. She smiled when Alfred ran past her into a room she guessed that was Nightwing's, which had the door a crack open, to let the cat come and go as he pleases.

Hopefully this time was going to be better.


	2. A Blood Bat no more

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steph thinks about what she knows about Damian. The training starts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not good at writing action scenes, so sorry in advance and maybe y'all should probably only read the backstory part. Actually I'm not sure what I'm even doing, I'm just vibing and writing whatever here.

Here’s what Steph knew about Nightwing a.k.a. Damian Wayne:

He was a hero, he saved people and kicked bad guy butt.

His mother was evil.

He once was Blood Bat, Batman’s sidekick.

He was an edgelord, because really, who named himself Blood Bat? At ten?

His father was Batman.

He didn’t like Tim.

He loves animals, why else would a rich prodigy become a vet?

He was grumpy AF.

He was scary good at fighting.

He wasn’t in good terms with Batman.

He was in good terms with Alfred Pennyworth tho.

When you googled Damian Wayne, (which, really, was the first thing she did after learning he was Nightwing) the Wikipedia article dedicated to him identified him as the son of Bruce Wayne and an unknown woman. After scrolling a little more, you could read about how he had graduated from high school at 14, started college at 16 at a prestigious university on a scholarship, graduated from college at 18 and that he was currently working as a vet in Blüdhaven. There were several articles about him as well, Steph had clicked on one titled “Remember him? Here’s what he’s doing now!” that had a photo of him at 10 looking very angry and a recent one of him as a vet vaccinating a small kitten. There was also one titled “We thought he kicked puppies, we couldn’t have been more wrong!”.

She remembered the early days of Blood Bat, everyone was scared of him. The bad guys, when busted, were relieved when they realized that the one that they were fighting was Batman and not his sidekick, he was way too violent. Children were terrified of him and the grownups were horrified, “what was wrong with that kid?!”, was an usual comment when talking about Blood Bat, who lived up to his name. Years passed and slowly, but surely, people started seeing him in a new light. Children started looking up to him and adults were less concerned. The villains just readjusted their fear to Batman levels, maybe less, since he was a young teen. 

When you googled Blood Bat, the Wikipedia page was informative, sure, it listed the years he’d been active and his most important feats, but if you wanted to really have a clear picture of him you had to look up articles and news about single events, check the date and compare them by using a timeline. The oldest ones were almost always news or opinions criticizing how he stopped some bad guys using extreme violence that barely left them alive. After that there’s was a period of time without any sightings of him, articles wondering where did he go and “good riddance" on opinion blogs.

Blood Bat reappeared months later for a short while, with articles informing of his return and news about apprehended bad guys, who weren’t too terribly beat up. There was also a debate over a blurry photo of someone flying, who, allegedly, was him. He disappeared again, though not completely, for a year. If you wanted news about him, you had to stop looking at Gotham’s local journalism and start looking for Blood Bat sightings all over the world.

After his return to Gotham, news and articles no longer talked about villains paralyzed for life and gun holding hands being cut clean off with a sword. Opinion blogs changed their tune after some time too. There were articles of Blood Bat helping people who weren’t in immediate danger now. Interviews with little kids that were rescued and successfully calmed down by him. He was still immensely serious but he stopped being so rude. And Steph's personal favorite; “Local five year old girl gives Blood Bat a drawing and he drew her a portrait in return!” with an image of a beautiful pencil sketch of a smiling little girl signed ‘Blood Bat' next to it.

Three years later, after a few Teen Titans articles, there were no new Blood Bat sightings. 

He still was in the Teen Titans until they disbanded, he was dressed in black and white instead of red and black, though.

When you googled Nightwing, the Wikipedia page for him told you that the people in Blüdhaven had dubbed him Green Hood before Flamebird said his official name in an interview two years later. There was a link to a semi-abandoned page for Green Hood.

There was a two year gap between the last sighting of Blood Bat and the first Green Hood article.

The oldest news and articles for Nightwing didn’t talk about a Nightwing at all. They talked about a new vigilante in town and were very excited to have their very own Batman. They started calling him Green Hood when faced with the lack of a hero name. Two years later, Blüdhaven local news reported another hero in the city and articles titled “We have a Super!”, “Green Hood brought a friend!”, “We have an official name!” and “Nightwing and Flamebird, the crime fighting duo of Blüdhaven” were written.

When you googled ‘Alfred the Cat Veterinary Clinic’, there was no Wikipedia in the results of the search, just a few articles recommending it and a map that told you how to go to the exact location where Stephanie Brown was currently recalling everything she knew about Nightwing.

When Steph asked Bruce Wayne about his biological son, he avoided the question.

When Steph asked Batkid about Blood Bat, back when she didn’t know that Batkid was Tim, he had complained and muttered something along the lines of “never meet your heroes”. 

When Steph asked Tim Drake about Damian Wayne, he complained some more. Though, that time, he dropped more information. He told her that he was currently in Blüdhaven, heroing under the name Nightwing. He also said that his mom was evil, pondering what differenced Steph from Damian. They also laughed about how Bruce liked ‘em bad.

When Steph asked Alfred about Damian, she could see the fondness in his eyes. Over tea and cookies, she learned that Bruce and Damian had a “disagreement” that resulted in the later handing over his Blood Bat insignia. The butler also told her that, a year later, they had another one regarding Tim joining Batman in his crusade.

Stephanie Brown closed her eyes, wondering what kind of mentor Damian Wayne would turn out to be.

…

Spoiler Alert: he was a drill sergeant. 

A few hours later Damian woke up Steph at 5am, THE HORROR. They were bats goddamnit, they went to sleep at 5am, not the other way around.

He told her to be in the training room in one minute. Thankfully, her superpower was changing clothes in less than ten seconds.

Nightwing looked at her with something suspiciously close to approval when she was there with thirty seconds to spare.

The training room had a LOT of weapons, there were various kinds of swords mounted on the walls, lots of knives, daggers, throwing stars, a few bo staffs and… were those nunchucks?! Awesome!

“So… Nightwing, what are we gonna do? Acrobatics? Hack the government?” Steph picked a katana off the wall and pointed at Damian with it. “…Sword fighting?”

He karate chopped her hand.

“Ow!” She protested, dropping the katana.

“You’ll hurt yourself,” he scolded her, catching the katana midair by the handle. Hanging the katana again, he continued, “We'll get to weaponry later, but first I must assess your abilities before deciding on your training.”

Translation: He wanted to see how good she was at kicking ass.

“Attack me.”

“What?”   
“Attack me,” Damian repeated, clearly exasperated.

“Fine.”

Moving into a practiced, proper fighting stance, she waited for him to run at her. Nightwing was a bigger, stronger opponent, she would have to use his strength against him.

“Your stance is adequate.” Excuse him?! Her stance was perfect, she practiced it and it was the same as Batman’s. “But I said ‘attack me'. Hand to hand. Go.”

So much for flipping him over her shoulder.

Steph ran at him. Kick to the stomach? Dodged. Karate chop to the pressure points? Deflected. Flying kick? Dodged. Punch to the face? Dodged. Roundhouse kick? Deflected and left off balance. He wasn’t fighting back. Punch to the throat? Blocked. Front kick? Side kick? Back kick? Blocked. Blocked. Blocked. Punch him, again? Dodged. Kick to the jaw? Dodged. 

She wasn’t landing a single hit, which, sure, predictable, it was like fighting Batman. But still, she wanted to land one. Determined, she kept going.

Fingers to the eyes?

Surprised, he still blocked it, a millisecond delayed, yet effective block.

She used every move and trick she knew. Improvised some more. Started using knees and elbows. Tried to headbutt him once (bad idea).

She didn’t land a single blow, which, like, Batman, but still, it was discouraging. 

Tired, she spoke:

“So..?”

“Your current level of skill at hand to hand allows you to defeat low-level crooks, you’ll crumble against anyone who has trained for more than two years.” Harsh.

A pause. He looked pensive.

“Don’t try to headbutt anyone who's not in close range to start with,” he said. “Also, don’t do it if you have better options.”

“Right.” It was a really dumb idea.

“Defensive moves, now.”

“What?” Aaaand he was running at her.

He threw a purposefully slow punch at her, she dodged.

She had to focus on dodging and deflecting, blocking blows of someone bigger and stronger than her wouldn’t end well.

His next move was a little faster, she sidestepped his attempt to sweep the leg and deflected the karate chop, but he was picking up speed and every time his blows got closer and closer until her back hit the mat after a particularly hard kick to the stomach.

“Oof.”

Without even bothering to offer a hand to help her get up, he spoke. “And now, we spar.”

Steph got up and moved into her stance once again.  
Damian looked at her and charged.

With a flurry of kicks and punches, he advanced. Keeping the speed and strength of his blows accordingly to her level.

Dodge, dodge, kick, kick, punch, sidestep, karate chop, dodge, deflect, sweep the leg, dodg… Too slow! BLOCK. Kick, keep your balance Steph, dodge, deflect, dodge… An opening! 

In what was an attempt to flip him, Damian twisted midair and kicked her legs, landing gracefully.

A trap! 

Jump, recover quickly, kick, punch, kick, deflect, deflect, kick, dodge, punch, getting tired, keep the pace, punch, punch.

From time to time, Damian left himself purposefully open to make the fight “fair”.

After getting kicked in the stomach three times in a row, her newfound mentor decided that she was exhausted enough to stop and rest (finally).

“Drink water.” No need to tell her twice.

She crawled to the bag containing her precious purple water bottle as if she were in the desert and hadn’t drank anything in 3 days.

As she rested, Steph noticed that Damian was staring at her, scrutinizing, thinking. Oh no, did she screw up already? This had to be some kind of new record.

Fortunately, when he spoke it wasn’t to fire her.

“Get up, we’ll fight again,” he said. “This time, we use our surroundings, utilize anything that is or can be used as a weapon.”

That was surprise, it even sounded pretty fun!

“Even the swords?”

“Yes.” He looked like he was already regretting everything.

“Even the swords?!”

“…Yes.” Yep, definitely seriously reconsidering all of his life choices. 

After downing her whole bottle (almost a whole liter of water), she got up.

“Okay, I’m ready.”

Damian nodded and grabbed his signature weapon, a katana. Oh no. She was about to freaking die.

“Let us begin.” And with that, he advanced.

As she dodged the slashes, Steph tried to think.

Try to identify all the weapons. Which ones could she successfully use?

The first time she wasn’t able to dodge in time, she felt her soul leave her body.

As the blade stopped an inch away from her neck, she couldn’t help but think that that was it, this is were she died (again). It was to good too be true, Nightwing only offered to train her so he could finally get rid of her. Nevermind that he didn’t kill.

“Dead,” he declared. “Again.”

He charged at her again, brandishing his katana. Picking up a shield to block a few slashes before dropping it off to the ground again, too heavy, it slowed her down.

Try this one, try them all, Steph blocked again, this time with a pair of glittering green daggers and then once again with one of the actual swords mounted on the wall, she felt very awesome with it, at least up until Damian disarmed her with one fancy movement that sent the blade flying to the opposite side of the room.

CLINK. CLANK. Nightwing kept attacking and she was pretty sure she went through all the weapons (and things that could be used as such), and she thought she did pretty well with all those foreign, unfamiliar ones. She even managed to twist the katana out of her opponent’s hand once! It was with something that resembled a hook, used to harvest wheat? Maybe.

Damian kept disarming her and, after a few times, she stopped fearing for her life every time she didn’t block or dodge in time (still scary as hell, though).

She used a variety of interestingly shaped knives, curved blades, maces, a beautiful spear, bolas and even a circular blade with an outer edge, and others.

She couldn’t say she moved gracefully and with a technique worthy of Katana, after all, she threw a sword at Damian and tried to cut him close range with the circular blade, a chakram, which, apparently, was a throwing weapon, as she learned later that day.

She even threw a weird dust at it eyes to blind him and he kept attacking as if it were nothing!

That test was over after Steph (a very exhausted Steph) ended up on the floor, after barely blocking a blow with the little chain of some nunchucks and just, uh, didn’t get up.

Damian was standing next to her.

“Give me a minute.”

He gave her a barely disguised amused look.

After she downed another liter of water Damian gave her some throwing stars to test her aim. 

Pretty good, she had to admit. Not many bullseyes but close.

And after that he gave her a bunch of tiny, colorful balls.

“Ooh, pretty,” she said. “What are these for, though?

“Moving target practice.” He paused. “Non lethal.”

He went to the other side of the training room.

“You may begin.”

A few minutes and a pouch of tiny balls full of paint later, Nightwing wasn’t any more colorful than before. The room was a complete disaster, though.

After that it was her own turn to dodge; it didn’t go well.

Covered in paint, she wondered what’s next.

“Here.” He gave her another pouch of paint balls. “This time make your shots lethal.”

“I thought you don’t do lethal.”

“Lethal moves can prove useful when your enemy isn’t as vulnerable as a normal human being is,” he explained. “When dealing with more resilient opponents, villains with a healing factor or simply the undead, lethal combat isn’t lethal anymore.”

He opened a wall. There was a supercomputer hidden. No keyboard, must operate by touch.

“Slade Wilson,” he said, opening a file. “Contract killer, highly efficient. Has accelerated healing, and, if you ever meet him, run and call me or Jon for help, Batman even if you can and we’re not available. If cornered, use lethal moves, the messier the better, they’ll only slow him down, not kill him.”

Ew. Noted.

That made sense. Bruce didn’t teach lethal combat, he teached how to not kill your opponent while you beated the shit out of them. Probably he had the fear that they would accidentally kill someone or even kill someone on purpose.

When throwing batarangs and the little paint balls, Steph always stuck to hands, arms and legs, unless she was aiming for a non vital organ~y part of the stomach and she was 110% sure she wouldn’t kill, after all, disarming your opponent and stopping them was the goal. 

It was weird aiming for the vital organs and the arteries instead of avoiding them.

At first he kept (infuriatingly) avoiding her shots, but he managed to trick him him throwing two at the same time and, while definitely not a kill shot, managed to make him block with his arm.

After that he blocked some, apparently he didn’t like to lose. One time he even grabbed one them midair and hurled it right back at her, it hit her square in the forehead. Show off.

Neck, all the organs on the stomach, arteries, hopefully she was precise enough to hit them.

She aimed for one of his eyes and threw her projectile.

“Hey, ‘Wing?” she addressed him, stopping the little paint ball onslaught.

“Yes?”

“Could you kill someone aiming a throwing star or something like that to the eye?”

“Usually not.” He opened a panel in the wall. There was a box. “Unless you use these.”

He showed her something that resembled more a diamond shaped knife than the throwing stars.

Comparing it to her head she spoke. “Yup. It definitely reaches the brain.”

After that they resumed but she only had a handful of little balls left.

She threw them all at him at the same time. Damian was caught by surprise.

He dodged a few and blocked almost all the other ones. Almost.

There, in his neck, laid a single tiny splat of paint. 

“Yes! I gotcha!”

Hell yeah, Steph, you still got it.

She waited for her next test, but it was time for her assessment.

“Your fighting style is inconsistent, lacks technique and will not suffice against anyone who’s not a smaller thug,” Damian told her. “Improving your martial arts will be the main focus of your training.”

Harsh.

“Aim is mediocre at best.” Ouch. “We’ll work on that too.”

It’s not as bad as he made it sound

“Your acrobatics, flexibility and reflexes are… adequate.” He paused. “We’ll work on the strength and speed, though.”

A win, finally. And they weren’t merely adequate, they were effing fantastic.

“The ability to think quick when plans fall apart, to improvise and to turn a dire situation in your favor taking advantage of your surroundings is a skill that might be or maybe even more important than the ability to form complex plans that might fail in execution.” He put the box of tiny throwing knives away. “It’s one that’s very difficult to teach, and thankfully, I won’t need to.”

Steph was smiling very wide. 

“Unpredictability is one of the only ways to defeat a more skilled opponent.” He gave her a long look. “Hopefully, you won’t lose that edge as you train to be better.”

“And finally…” Damian narrowed his eyes. Uh oh, what did she do? “You attempted to blind me.”

Whoops?

“Correction, I successfully blinded you.” Shut your mouth, Steph. “You just kept going as if it were nothing.”

“I’ve been trained to fight blind,” Nightwing said. “And to ignore discomfort.”

“Yeah, yeah. Bruce can do that too. You bats move through echolocation, I swear.” Steph complained. “It’s not like I’m going to fight one of you for real.”

Not that she would win either. Maybe she could defeat Tim. Her new mentor was proficient in the use of weaponry, maybe he could teach her how to use them really good and then she could challenge her ex to a duel, since it would be impossible to win against him otherwise.

“Something not unlike that, otherwise using a hood would be unwise,” he explained. “Batman once told me a hood could easily become a blindfold, and then I proved that it was not a problem.”

“Oops.” Her Spoiler hood had gotten in the way few times. 

“You’ll learn.”

And she looked forward to it.

“Did you guys play paintball without me?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today's my birthday, I'm turning 18! In the words of the wise Alfred Pennyworth, God help us all. Man, I'm really posting a chapter every national holiday, huh? Maybe the next one is going to be ready in February 14th.


	3. One Girl Revolution

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How Steph met Nightwing. Steph meets Maps.

It was Alfred Day when Steph met Nightwing.

She didn’t know what Alfred Day was that night, of course.

Even though Damian wasn’t in speaking terms with neither Bruce nor Tim, he still was in good terms with Alfred.

One or two times a week her grumpy mentor made his way back to Gotham and sneaked into Wayne manor with some homemade food to see the butler. He usually spent the whole day catching up with his honorary grandfather, sometimes he accompanied Alfred in his errands and sometimes they stayed at the manor.

She was sure Tim didn’t know anything about it, he’d never told her anything that suggested otherwise, Bruce was another story completely, was he aware? No idea. Nightwing had gotten so good in the last years that it wasn’t farfetched to think that he was able to get past Batman himself without him knowing. On the other hand, avoiding emotional situations seemed pretty on brand for Bruce.

Damian was going back to Blüdhaven when he saw her running on rooftops and decided she would make kickass mentee.

…

It was what Jon liked to call “Alfred Day" when he met Stephanie Brown.

He had hugged Alfred goodbye and was on his way back to Blüdhaven, just needed to get to his motorbike, when he saw a shadow jump from one rooftop to another.

Father was patrolling on the other side of Gotham at that moment, he’d made sure of that before going to fetch his bike. Drake was to the east, he wasn’t worried about him, he would never be able to find him if he didn’t want to be found. And he didn’t.

Was this a new bat or was this…?

She swung over a window with the lights on, which allowed him to catch the flash of a purple cape.

Stephanie Brown.

Pennyworth had told him she was alive, Father’s unwanted sidekick, the one that almost destroyed Gotham trying to prove her worth.

He followed her. 

As he creeped closer he heard her… talking?

No. Singing.

It was the credits song of that movie he watched with Jon, Legally Blonde.

She clearly wasn’t going for stealth that night.

As he stalked her through the Narrows rooftops he studied her movements… and the song’s lyrics.

“And I’ll be everything that I wanna be,” she sang as she swung from a tall building to a smaller one.

She landed and started running across the roof. “I am confidence and insecurity.”

“I am a voice yet waiting to be heard,” she declared as she power posed at the edge of the apartment complex.

She jumped.

“I'll shoot the shot. Bang.” She fired her grappling hook, synchronizing it perfectly with the ‘bang’, which was, coincidentally, the last possible moment to do so.

Impressive.

Reckless.

Impressive but reckless. 

“That you hear round the world.” She was soaring through the skies. 

“And I’m a one girl revolution.”

He decided to make his presence known.

“I’m a one girl revolution, I’m a one girl revoluuuu… tion?” She had noticed him. “Nightwing?!”

“Stephanie Brown.”

“Did Bruce ever give you the ‘no names in the field’ speech? Because, like, names, dude.”

Damian lifted an eyebrow.

“There’s nobody within earshot…” He gazed at her purple cape. “…Spoiler.”

She touched her cape a little self consciously 

“Just because you think there’s no one listening it doesn’t mean there’s isn’t somebody doing it,” Steph said in her best impression of Bruce while she put two fingers up to either side of her head, mimicking the “ears" on Batman’s cowl. “There's always someone who could be more skilled than you.”

He shot her an unimpressed look. 

“What are you doing here anyway?” She asked. “You haven’t set a foot in Gotham since your Blood Bat days!”

Or so she thought. 

“And why did you follow me? Did you come here to tell me to quit too? No, coming all the way to Gotham to berate me is ridiculous. You probably were already in the city.

He was silently judging her.

“Well, I won’t,” she declared, determined. “I know I can do some good, kick bad guy ass, prove myself and most importantly, save people.”

She held his stare.

“I’m not quitting, even if it kills me again.”

“What if it kills someone else?” Damian asked somberly.

“It won’t,” she told him, reassuring both herself and him, for the looks of it. “I’ll make sure of it.”

He narrowed his eyes, thinking. Stephanie Brown had some training, from when Batman trained her briefly as Spoiler and later on as Batgirl, she had experience and from what he'd investigated and seen, she was comparable to professional acrobats and very flexible. 

She was reckless, there were times when she caused trouble, was desperate to prove herself and didn’t follow orders if she thought she knew better.

Then again, he was worse than her when he started.

“You will be training with me.” He stated.

“What?” Steph asked, perplexed. “Are you for real? You don’t think I should stop being a vigilante?”

“You should…”

“Tell that to the lives I’ve saved.”

He shot her a pointed look.

“…but you won’t. I’m making sure you don’t get someone killed.”

“Wasn’t gonna happen.”

He gave her a look that said he doubted it.

Damian jumped from the building, stopped his fall by shooting his grappling gun, and, after seeing that Steph didn’t follow him, he came back up.

“Will you come?” he asked, annoyed.

“Where?”

“Blüdhaven.”

“I…” She hesitated for just a split second. “Yes.” She said firmly. “To the training I mean, also I gotta call my mom.”

After a quick call, she talked to him again.

“I can go!” She said happily. “If anyone asks I’m in a party and I’m going to spend the night at Sara's”

He lifted an eyebrow.

“Shut up,” she grumbled. “What now?”

“Wait here.”

…

After several minutes Nightwing came back with two motorcycles.

She didn’t stay put, she’d stopped two muggings (That did they expect her to do? To not stop them?) while he was away but he didn’t have to know that.

He shot her a look. He definitely knew.

“Where did you get the other one?” She asked.

“Let’s go.”

He hadn’t said anything about it though.

“So…” She started. “Why Nightwing? Is it true your mom is evil? Can you confirm or deny that Batman likes ‘em evil? What is your favorite color? What do you think about Tim? Am I gonna meet the Titans? Have you seen Alfred recently? Where did you get the extra bike?”

Damian sighed.

…

The next day, after washing all the sweat and the paint off, she went to the kitchen for breakfast. At 9 a.m. on a Saturday. Horrible.

“Last night night I stumble onto a meta human trafficking ring, D,” Jon informed Damian.

“How big?” The shorter man asked.

“I don’t know? Not small.”

Nightwing and his partner were discussing about Jon's patrol. The mighty Flamebird, son of the man of steel, rivaling his dad in power (maybe even more powerful) was in his pajamas with Damian, who was just about to open the veterinary clinic downstairs, in the kitchen. 

It was still pretty surreal.

Then again, what in her life wasn’t?

“We’ll be both investigating it tonight,” Damian said.

“Yessir.” Jon did a militar salute.

“Can I go?” Steph asked, hopeful.

“No.”

“Aw. Please?” 

“No.”

“Why not?” She knew why, last night he had told her that he wasn’t doing any vigilantism until he was satisfied with her awesomeness level and all that.

He ignored her and headed to his silly named clinic.

He’d told her no vigilantism and after that she met certain standards she would be helping them out in Blüdhaven (That needed as much help as it can get, just like Gotham) always in company of Nightwing or Flamebird. And after a lot more training, she could patrol in Gotham alone.

Soon, Steph, soon.

She could patrol alone. And he’d seen her badassery. 

She could do it, Bat approved and all that.

“Hey, Steph.” Jon greeted her and then yawned.

“Hey,” she greeted back. “Stayed late?”

“Yeah.” He grabbed a milk carton and cereal and sat beside her. “The traffic ring kind of prolonged the night.”

“Lucky.”

“Heh.” Jon laughed. “When you’re ready I can fly you back to Gotham.”

“No need. I’m going back on the motorcycle,” she informed him. “I have to return it to the Detective Society.”

Since Gotham was a cesspool of weird, freaky and fucked up stuff and people don’t have a way to contact Batman (unless it was a gruesome murder and the GCPD turned on the Bat-signal), the Detective Society was founded for helping facing some degree of “weird” and investigating anything out of the ordinary. She dropped by sometimes to help (God knows they were as overworked as the bats).

“A Detective Society’s Motorcycle?!”

Faster than a speeding bullet, he exited the kitchen and was back in 3 seconds.

“Lucky you, you got to ride a Maps' bike,” he gushed. “So cool.”

“Maps?”

“Mia Mizoguchi, we call her Maps,” Jon explained. “She’s the coolest nerd ever.”

“Oooh, she’s the founder and director of the Society, right?”

“That’s right,” Jon said. “I wish I had one, it would be the Flamecycle.”

“You can fly.”

“I know, but it would look so cool.”

“You’re friends with her?”

“She’s closer to Damian, but yeah.”

“How did he meet her?”

“At Gotham Academy.”

“I thought he was homeschooled?”

“That’s because he got expelled the first day!”

“How does a rich kid get expelled the first day from Gotham Academy?”

“I know right?” Jon laughed. “He actually took the fall for Maps for stealing a magical artifact that belonged to the school, they didn’t know it was magical, it was just historical for them.”

“Woah, how weirdly nice of him,” she commented. “Director Mizoguchi was a troublemaker? I mean I knew the Society had to be badass to investigate all the messed up Gotham stuff."

“Apparently she and her friends started out investigating all the Gotham Academy weirdness, which it was just as much as the rest of the city,” Jon explained. “You can imagine how much trouble the school gave them for it.”

“Wow.” Steph got up and washed the dishes. “I’ll get going now, do you know when I have to come back?”

“No, but Damian will probably send me when it’s time for Steph.” He waved at her and smiled. “Bye, Steph, have a safe travel.”

“Thanks Jon!” It was great to have someone from the superhero community be nice to her. “Bye!”

…

Two hours or so later Steph reached Gotham.

Now to the Society.

It was a big building, formerly a museum that couldn’t keep open thanks to a whole lot of thieves that kept ransacking it, the lack of funds and its inability to stop the criminals.

It’s not easy to steal from the society, it’s members were brave and had some basic training. Besides, Director Mizoguchi had friends and contacts, people owed her favors too. Now that she thought about it, Nightwing was probably one of them, now she knew he went back to Gotham and that he was her.

They also had the mighty Spoiler protecting them.

Also, enemy hideouts tended to get burned to the ground.

She entered the building and approached the desk.

“Hello?” She greeted the secretary. “I came he to give back a motorcycle.”

“Are you a new member? You just have to head to the underground parking lot for members, go to the motorcycle storage and slide your membership card.”

“I’m not a member, uh…” Should she call him Damian or Nightwing? Nightwing wasn’t supposed to be in Gotham, if she called him Damian would she expose his identity? Blood Bat? Screw it. “A friend of Director Mizoguchi borrowed a bike, I’m here to deliver it.

“Oh!” She realized what this was. “Wait a sec.”

Using the phone, she made a call.

“Director Mizoguchi? The girl with the motorcycle is here,” she told who she supposed to be Mia Mizoguchi. “She’ll meet you shortly,” the secretary said to Steph, effectively ending the call.

When people said Director Mizoguchi, what came to mind was a serious and intimidating woman more than 40 years old that directed everyone from her desk like pieces in a chess set.  
Instead, in front of Steph was a young, cheerful woman that was barely 5 years older than her and also very short. She had the very professional suit she was imagining but she also had a big yellow flower adorning her short hair.

From what’s heard, the Asian woman worked alongside the members, investigating the messed up Gotham stuff.

“Uh. Good morning Director Mizoguchi,” Steph greeted her, nervous. 

“Hi! Call me Maps.” Were all of Nightwing’s friend so nice and with a sunny disposition? “Come with me.”

They walked together through the hallways.

“My name is…”

“Spoiler.” Oh she knew. “I know you been helping us out from time to time, thank you so much.”

“O-oh, you’re welcome,” Steph responded, smiling. Really, Nightwing’s friends must be compensating for his damianess, y'know, for balance.

“Sooo… Tell me all about being a vigilante!” Maps gushed. “Do you have a grappling gun?”

“You betcha sister! Do you?” 

“Yes! It’s the best thing ever!” Maps seemed to remember something. “…when you get the hang of it, of course.”

“Do I sense a story?”

She spent some time swapping stories with the director. Jon was right, Maps was very cool and also a nerd.

She also learned some prime teasing material.

“What do I do with the motorcycle?” Steph asked.

“You know what? Keep it.”

“Really? I’m not a member.”

“I think we can spare one,” Maps told her. “Besides, as far as I’m concerned, you are one of us.”

…

She hoped she could help them again soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again, everyone! It's not valentine's day here anymore. This is supposed to be a Damian & Steph fic, I know, but I wanted Steph to be appreciated and I want people to be nice to her (she deserves it! Heroes have given her a hard time) but right now Dami's too grumpy to do that. 
> 
> I introduced Maps! Hope you liked the Detective Society.

**Author's Note:**

> Instead of aging up Jon I just aged everyone else. Also he knew Damian when he died.


End file.
